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Momo

1 December 2009 - 6:31pm

Thomas,

The reason why women’s vote came so late in Switzerland was of course that the men had rejected it several times in their referenda (they had had referenda on the topic for decades) . My point isn’t Swiss-bashing though, it’s the question where fundamental rights derive from. The average Swiss says that even where the decision made by a referendum is wrong (as with women’s vote or now with the minaret ban), after a while they get at the right decision. If one is patient enough, direct democracy arrives at the right decision. My point is that there are rights that can’t be decided on by a majority (or worse, women’s votes that can’t be decided on by men). But if there are rights that can’t be set by democratic decisions, where else do they come from?